Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb has love-hate relationship with city of Philadelphia

Andrew Mills/The Star-LedgerDonovan McNabb was smiling in practice this week.

PHILADELPHIA -- One game into the Eagles' improbable postseason, and quarterback Donovan McNabb still hasn't escaped one Sunday in mid-November.

When he arrived for his Wednesday morning news conference at the Eagles' practice facility, dressed in black fleece Eagles sweats, the inquiries about his Week 12 benching swirled: Was it a motivator for this run your team has made to the Divisional round? Did it affect your teammates? Does it still bother you?

Actually, McNabb didn't even have to be asked that last question, because his feelings came through loudly and clearly when posed with a routine question about how the Giants defense might not have been as good at the end of the season as it was at the beginning.

But, McNabb pointed out as he stepped off the dais, "none of them got benched."

Yes, he's still irked by being pulled from the second half of that loss in Baltimore -- though in the meantime he has helped his team pull a U-turn en route to Sunday's second-round playoff game with the Giants.

Could there be a season that more appropriately defines McNabb's professional career?

His decade in Philadelphia has been punctuated by episode after episode that have created a stir here and beyond. Rush Limbaugh's comments that McNabb was overrated as a quarterback because he's black. Debate about whether or not he threw up during the final drive of Super Bowl XXXIX. Ridicule for not knowing NFL teams could tie.

But he has had staying power throughout, spinning a love-hate relationship with one of the toughest cities in which to play professional sports.

"Some of us, I suppose, you were born with (it)," said Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, who is in his sixth season with the team. "Some of us, your experiences growing up, and some of us, just that certain mentality. And he has that. He has the certain mentality that he can bounce back."

That's something Father Tim Andres, his high school principal, saw the seeds for during McNabb's days at Mount Carmel High School, a private Catholic school in Chicago whose motto is "Building character for a lifetime."

McNabb was perpetually upbeat, Andres recalled, and was the student whose help he enlisted on the senior retreat to Notre Dame to turn around the attitudes of a few peers who had little interest in being there.

"To be able to deal with adversity doesn't come by happenstance," Andres said. "It comes from someone who has a sense of what's important in life. Those are the things that carry you through any adversity, and he has that kind of sense in himself."

It was clear from the start that resilience would be needed. At the 1999 NFL Draft, McNabb's No. 2 overall selection was greeted with boos from a section of Eagles fans angry that management passed on running back Ricky Williams. The big-armed former Syracuse quarterback took over as the Eagles' starter that fall and, three years later, earned a $115 million extension through 2013 -- though, at several points, it has looked as if he wouldn't play that out.

That was certainly true earlier this season, when McNabb's embarrassing admission after the Cincinnati tie and Baltimore benching came in back-to-back weeks, and Eagles fans called for his era to come to a close. But before the first-round playoff victory against Minnesota, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie put the speculation to rest, telling the Boston Globe the team had "every intention" of bringing McNabb back in 2009.

"I wouldn't necessarily say I could handle it like he's been handling it," long-time teammate Lito Sheppard said. "Having the organization down on you a little bit and going through that part of it is hard enough, but then when the city gets involved, it's like, 'Hey, what's really happening?' He's been handling it like a champ, to tell the truth."

A champion, though, is the one thing McNabb has not been in Philadelphia -- and, ultimately, it is what his legacy here could hinge upon. This is the closest McNabb has been since the 2004 season, when he took the Eagles to the Super Bowl after three consecutive losses in the NFC Championship Game.

"Guess what? That's what I'm looking for," said South Philadelphia resident Francesco Criniti, 52. "We got the Phillies; we need the Eagles to step up. They can do it -- if Donovan doesn't throw up."

Pete Ciarrocchi, owner of famous Philadelphia sports bar Chickie's & Pete's, likes to compare Philadelphia fans to very particular customers: They complain because they really care about what they're being served. And according to Ciarrocchi, many in the city wish McNabb would see it that way, too.

"There's not a lot of love for his personality," Ciarrocchi said. "He complains and cries. Get over it. Take the criticism and understand (that) people like you."

Admittedly, that can be difficult during weeks like the one following the Baltimore game, when fans flooded the phone lines of WIP -- Philadelphia's sports talk radio station -- clamoring for change after McNabb completed just 44 percent of his passes and turned the ball over three times in one half.

Four days later, McNabb retaliated the best way he knew how: by throwing for 260 yards and four touchdowns in a stunning 48-20 Thanksgiving night rout of Arizona. That was the Eagles' first of five wins in six games that brought them to this afternoon.

McNabb denied that his turnaround was tied into the benching, calling it "coincidental." Coach Andy Reid, however, feels differently.

"Sometimes you just need to take a little bit of a step back," Reid said, "and you can take a big step forward."

For McNabb, Sunday's game has the potential to be a defining one. It could bring him one step closer to that elusive ring, at age 32. Or, it could be yet another dead end.

"Would I like to win a ring? Yes," McNabb said. "Do I prepare myself throughout the offseason to put myself in a position to win the Super Bowl? Yes. Would I like to win one for the City of Philadelphia? Yes. But I don't believe that rings solidify how great your career was."

Three more wins, however, could change how he -- and Philadelphia -- feels about that.